The Hero's Journey

Last night was the first night of my new writing class at SMU. It was a great first class and I am so pleased because 11 of the 15 students were together in our last class with Suzanne Frank, Intro to Creative Writing. We are already familiar with each other and so there was no shyness to get over; we jumped right in.

Our professor, Daniel J. Hale, began the course by discussing the typical basic form of fiction, a form called the Hero's Journey, championed by Christopher Vogler. Below is an outline of the Hero's Journey. Compare it to your favorite fiction story/novel and see how it fits.

1) Hero/ine is introduced in the Ordinary World, where...
2) S/he receives the Call to Adventure.
3) S/he is reluctant at first or Refuses the Call, but...
4) S/he is encouraged by a Mentor to...
5) Cross the First Threshhold and enter the Special World, where...
6) S/he encounters Tests, Allies, and Enemies.
7) S/he then will approach the Inmost Cave, crossing a second threshold...
8) Where s/he endures the Supreme Ordeal.
9) S/he takes possession of the Reward and...
10) Is pursued on the Road Back to the Ordinary World.
11) S/he crosses the third threshold, experiences a Resurrection and is transformed by the experience.
12) S/he then returns with the Elixir, a boon, treasure or lesson to benefit the Ordinary World.

For example, Cinderella
1) Ordinary World - working as a maid in her step mother's house
2) Call to Adventure - Prince's Ball
3) Refuses call - Cinderella can't go, though she'd like to
4) Mentor - Fairy Godmother arrives
5) Cross 1st Threshhold - Magically transformed into princess, pumpkin to chariot, mice to white horses
6) Tests - Leaving at the stroke of midnight, leaving slipper
7) Inmost Cave - Does she love the prince, does she deserve him as a poor maid?
8) Supreme Ordeal - He tries the glass slipper on all the ladies of the kingdom but she isn't allowed to try
9) Reward - The prince allows her to try and she is discovered as the lady he loves
10) The Road Back - She is saved and her abusive family asks her forgiveness and mercy
11) Resurrection - She marries the Prince
12) Elixir - She lives happily ever after